For anyone who has ever felt like the U.S. Department of the Treasury is a tad inaccessible, we’re happy to report some heartening news. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has started a blog, called “Treasury Notes,” on the U.S. Treasury website. There’s even a cute photo up top of Mr. Geithner writing a little note at his desk, with a pen — maybe so his assistant can type it up and put it on the Internet?
But “blogs” are sort of passe these days; any brand manager worth his or her salt knows there’s much more to online engagement than just occasional missives posted to an RSS. Thankfully, Mr. Geithner is aware of this:
And to expand our dialogue with citizens like you, we’ve set up accounts on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr and YouTube; added an Open Government forum; and created this blog.
“On his first day in office,” Mr. Geithner continues, “President Obama called for increased openness, participation and collaboration between the taxpayers and their government.” It only took almost two years for the Treasury to do something so “transparent.”
Too bad Tumblr has been down; Treasury could’ve gotten into some great discussions with Newsweek, BlackBook, and Katy Perry.
(via Barry Ritholz)
mtaylor [at] observer.com | @mbrookstaylor
